What made you quit Forex?

What Made Me Quit Forex - And Why You Should Too

 

I’ve written about forex trading before, but now I’m writing about why I quit forex, and why you should too. Here’s the thing – the market isn’t perfect, and neither are you and I.

That’s the way markets work, they take advantage of our imperfections to exploit us at every turn. As traders, we need to recognize when we’re in a position where we can no longer be competitive and quit before it gets ugly.

 

I was making more with other methods

With FX, there’s always a new level to reach, but it never seems to arrive. I hit high-low spreads. I moved into dark pools. But no matter what I did, I couldn’t get any further than $10K a month in income.

The most profitable traders in FX can do far better than that—but they take on considerable with every trade. What if you’re not willing to give up your nights and weekends (not to mention a lot of stress) for half a million dollars a year?

If that sounds like you, then FX might not be worth your time. At least not right now. For me, I started getting tired of waking up at 5:00 AM to start trading before my kids woke up. Trading currencies is one thing; having a family is another entirely.

When my wife told me she was pregnant with our second child, it was time to look at other options.

 

The traders around me weren’t doing well

This is something I didn’t see until I got out of the trenches.

Trading can make a person really stressed, and stress is not conducive to making good trades or having healthy relationships. It got to a point where people were starting to develop real addictions—alcoholism, drugs, depression—and forex traders were at that bottom rung.

The environment turned into something very dark and self-destructive. Watching my friends get caught up in all of that made me want to get out before it was too late for me as well.

After seeing how miserable they had become because of their addiction, I began looking for an escape route myself. That’s when I left and joined...

 

Quitting freed up my time and energy

The most obvious benefit of quitting was that I had much more time and energy for things I cared about. While working in any job, there is a feeling that you have to be on all day long—that you can’t let up for a second.

At some point, though, I realized that being overly concerned with my work wasn’t making me feel good. My identity became so wrapped up in being a trader that it was negatively affecting other parts of my life;

I wasn’t giving myself room to breathe, relax and enjoy myself. When I quit trading full-time, I felt happier and found other ways to satisfy my need for stimulation.

 

My Forex broker didn’t help much either

The problem with Forex brokers is that they can’t teach you how to trade. My broker was no different. They provided me with a little ebook that detailed all their trading products, but it didn’t really help me understand how to get going.

When I asked them for specific information on my account, they didn’t give it to me and instead told me I needed more experience under my belt before they could even think about helping me further.

It wasn’t until I quit that I realized just how much money my broker had made off of my initial deposit, and suddenly everything started making sense. Don’t expect your broker to help you; save yourself time and frustration by taking matters into your own hands!

 

The market changes too fast to make quick profits

Trading is a high-, volatile endeavor. While there are opportunities to make money trading currencies, they’re fleeting, and rarely realized in practice.

A lot of people have tried their hand at day trading, only to find out that it’s not for them; most give up before ever reaching their goals. If you're looking for quick success, better stick with traditional investments—like stocks or bonds—and avoid high- investment vehicles like foreign exchange.

If you're interested in learning more about making forex work for you, check out other posts on our page.

 Or, if you'd rather go back to basics, start here: What Is Forex?

What Are Currency Pairs?

How Do I Make Money From Currency Trading?

 

Sooner or later, there will be another crash

Many people think of financial trading as a zero-sum game: one trader’s gain is another trader’s loss. But that’s not actually true. In fact, there are three groups involved in every transaction:

The buyer, seller, and market-maker (the person facilitating transactions) each profit in different ways. For those reasons, it can take years to become profitable in day trading.

Make sure you don't get caught holding a losing position while you learn how to trade, or you could end up like I did—working 80 hours a week with barely enough to pay rent and keep food on my table.

Conclusion

Hey there, forex market junkie. You know who you are. I'm talking to you: sitting in front of your computer for hours on end because just one more trade can't hurt, right? The truth is that it does. So do your family and friends a favor.

Read my story and realize that there's more to life than moving bars on a chart. A lot more. If only someone had told me sooner... I'd have saved myself so much time and heartache. There's nothing wrong with trading or investing in general.

But trading 24/7 isn't going to make you rich, no matter how good you think you are at it. It will just drive your family away from you (and maybe even cost them their own money). Don't be another statistic; don't let all those wasted hours add up to nothing but regret down the road.

Walk away now while there's still time left over for things that really matter—like building real relationships with people who care about what happens to you as a person and not how much money they can squeeze out of you as a customer or client.

Thank goodness I got out when I did!

Take care!